Dreaming of the pool (One for Dave Powell)

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Thanks Thorsten. I was with the three young grandchildren over the last couple of days. Terrorists all. And very healthy.

thorsten replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

That sounds highly promising ;)) And now you got me very interested in Sapporo, for sure. I used the last days to put a Nikon Z5II through her paces, into the Berlin Samurai museaum among other places.

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Thanks Bill. 20th Aug for the uneventful story!

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Thanks Gary - spooky dream and the fact that we were on a prearranged trip to a location where head injuries figured in our trip.

Gary Smith replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

My guess as well. I've had those experiences myself but I don't talk about them because I don't want people to think I'm nuts.

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Thanks Dave and many thanks for the long explanation in your "Mum" post. QFT is puzzling and particularly the entanglement issue which seems to carry the implications you refer to. I prefer to sit on the fence until we understand it better. Even so just the fact that the universe is a piece of mathematics so far as we can tell, is deeply puzzling. So my explanation of this case is far more prosaic. With 8bn people on the planet if one in 100,000 has a spooky dream once a year, that's still about 250 'inexplicable' relationships every day. So Coincidence is my explanation in this case. But you could be right.

thorsten replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

The question is, dear Geoff, if the observer principle of quantum mechanics is true, does the brain plays a part in collapsing the wave function?

Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

You are very welcome Geoff! (I'm just getting to these comments after weeding through yesterday's 35mmc email storm!) You are most welcome to sit on the fence... along with the very scientists who are observing quantum's strangest effects in their labs. Even they don't know quite how to interpret them! Another scientist who believes that the universe is a mathematical construct is Max Tegmark, author of "Our Mathematical Universe." He believes that the universe IS math because mathematics has been so good at analyzing and explaining it. But I asked him whether that could instead be due to the basic nature of mathematical and scientific research. In them, theories are proposed and accepted for further research as long as they fit "reality"... or discarded when they ail to explain it. I called this a form of evolutionary "survival of the fittest." And he did accept the "possibility" that math is actually the best model of the universe that we currently have... but not necessarily the universe itself!

Leon Winnert replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Gary you are not Nuts. Just experiencing what humans have been experiencing for Millenia. Every now and again I have such dreams. All part of the universal connectedness we call consciousness.

Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Well put, thorsten! And this is an excellent example of the "subtlety" of reality. As far as quantum scientists are concerned "observing" the quantum energy field-- by eye, camera or any measuring instrument-- does "collapse" formless quantum energy into things that we call "particles." Scientists have observed this so many times in their labs that it's now pretty much a given. But the brain itself is another question! Would just thinking about particles cause the same "wave function collapse" into matter? I don't believe that's been tested... but it would be interesting!

Ibraar Hussain replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Very true Leon!

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

So in the double slit experiment the observer is undoubtedly thinking about the particles. Is it the slit or the observer that causes the effect? Change the slit separation, type of particle, observer - reselts are reproducible independent of observer. So my (tentative) vote is that the observer doesn't collapse the wave function.........but if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound....

thorsten replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Hello Dave and Geoff! Roger Penrose assumed that part of the generation of consciousness stems from collapsing the wave function in microtubules (which are protein structures within neurons) in the brain. These microtubules would be able to maintain quantum superpositions, hereby creating your reality. As Penrose is Lee Millers nephew, the connection to photography is also given ;))

Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Slit, observer brain, eyeballs or a combination? And extending the whole concept to potential macro domains, the results really should be both reproducible and independent of observers... if this is also the fundamental mechanism behind what people experience every day when they open their eyes and venture out!!

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

And my PhD mentor, so that connection is also given!

Dave Powell replied:

Comment posted: 03/08/2025

Correctamundo, thorsten! And microtubules proved capable of maintaining superpositions at "biological" temperatures for durations long enough to generate our perceived realities. A surprise for some quantum physicists!

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 04/08/2025

Haha! Thanks Daniel.

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 04/08/2025

Alejandro, this has to be seen in the context of Dave Powell's earlier posts, in particular "Meet me Mum".

Daniel Castelli replied:

Comment posted: 04/08/2025

I happen to like photos of everyday life. Things happen. Ignore them? No, celebrate the bumps. 25 years from now, this will be a beloved story. He’s ok.

Ed Currie replied:

Comment posted: 04/08/2025

Alejandro I think you miss the point. The portrait at the top of the article is excellent and the gashed head would make any medical photographer proud. Routine now where I am to photograph injuries like this, perhaps where you are this facility does not exist!

Geoff Chaplin replied:

Comment posted: 04/08/2025

Thanks Ed - his mother is a medic but not a professional photographer!